By Mike Oswalt
WHICH CAME FIRST: THE DATA OR THE DECISION?
Like the age-old chicken and egg scenario, discussing which came first causes varied opinions. However, the answer to which came first with regard to the data or the decision is easy: neither. What must come first is collaboration. Without it, a decision that is made or data that is gathered in isolation will be
misguided or at least narrow in scope. DECISIONS
For years, leaders (whether school, government or industry) have made decisions with minimal or no collaboration and absent from data. A prime example is when the founder of Digital Research in 1980 was asked to meet with IBM to discuss the possibility of Digital Research creating the operating system for IBM’s first personal computer. Digital Research’s founder chose to not attend the meeting and sent another person in his place who in turn decided to pass on the idea. IBM then went to Bill Gates, and the rest is history. Had the leader of Digital Research researched the data on the need for a personal computer operating system, and if he and a collaborative team from his company had been part of the initial meeting, the outcome may have been much different for Digital.
“Schools that explore data and take action collaboratively provide the most fertile soil in which a culture of improvement can take root and flourish” (“The Collaborative Advantage”, Educational Leadership, Dec/Jan 2009).
COLLABORATION
In today’s world, collaboration is essential in order for continuous improvement efforts to flourish and take root. Who should collaborate? Anyone interested in student success. Specifically, curriculum, technology and pupil accounting leaders of a school
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district or education service agency must join together across department boundaries to lead district and regional projects. In addition, building principals must work together to share proven school improvement strategies, and building level professional learning communities must work together to use data to identify classroom interventions that make a positive difference on student success.
Many districts and educational service agencies are embarking on data warehousing initiatives. If the leaders of these initiatives are anything less than collaboration between curriculum, technology and pupil accounting, the initiative runs the risk of failure. Why? Curriculum leaders are focused on the essential questions necessary to focus school improvement efforts, not necessarily the data or tools to analyze the answers. Technology leaders are focused on data systems and their efficiencies, not necessarily the school improvement questions to ask of the data. And pupil accounting leaders are focused on collecting the data accurately, not necessarily on collecting all the school improvement data necessary for helping to answer the questions.
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